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Adding Links in Snow Leopard's Mail

Apple Mail in Snow Leopard now has a Command-key shortcut for adding a link to an email.

If you use plain-text email, this will not be helpful at all, but if you send styled email, it's a nice shortcut for adding URLs to your email messages. Simply select the word(s) you want to make into a link, press Command-K, and enter the URL to build into the link.

Latest Stories from TidBITS

After getting hit with a data overage charge while on vacation in Ottawa, Adam Engst decided to get serious about working within a small international data cap for his next trip to Canada. Here are his tips.

Verizon Communications Inc. is purchasing AOL Inc. for approximately $4.4 billion. In addition to AOL’s surprisingly robust dial-up Internet business (2.3. million active subscribers), AOL also owns a number of high-profile blogs, such as The Huffington Post, TechCrunch, and Engadget.

Under proposed settlement terms for a 2014 class-action lawsuit against MacKeeper creator ZeoBIT, the company could owe customers $2 million in refunds. ZeoBIT has been accused of unscrupulous marketing, with system tests that flag nonexistent problems. Austrian firm AV Comparatives tested the latest trial version of MacKeeper on a fresh install of OS X 10.10 Yosemite, and the software warned that the computer’s condition was “serious,” citing 500 MB of “junk” files.

We want photos on the Mac and on iOS devices to seamlessly find their ways into our photo libraries, but until recently that was essentially impossible. Apple’s Photos for OS X and Adobe’s Lightroom CC include cloud-based options for synchronizing photos among devices, but take different paths to reach that goal.

It’s no secret among the Mac cognoscenti that the Mac App Store hasn’t lived up to its promise, but developer Sam Soffes has revealed just how bad the problem is. On 6 May 2015, he launched a new app, Redacted for Mac, that quickly shot to the 8th spot on the U.S. Top Paid list. But the app wasn’t as successful as you might think: on the first day, it sold only 94 copies, for a total of $452.

A lot has happened since our last installment. Several key bills are being debated in Congress, a new surveillance program has been revealed, presidential candidates have offered their input, the snoops are moving on Silicon Valley, and a high-profile leaker had his day in court.

Many Apple users have been experiencing networking problems, and developer Craig Hockenberry explains the cause in a profanity-laced tirade. The discoveryd service, introduced in OS X 10.10 Yosemite and iOS 8, is the root of the problems. Unfortunately, the more Apple devices you have on a network, the more likely it is that you will suffer these networking problems. So far, the only fix seems to be to reboot all of your Apple devices. If you have both an AirPort router and an Apple TV, you should turn off the Apple TV, reboot the router, and then turn the Apple TV back on.

Apple has confirmed that it will offer a Made for Apple Watch program that will enable other companies to produce approved Apple Watch bands. While it remains to be seen what band creators will do, one thing is certain: approved bands will not charge the Apple Watch, at least not through magnetic charging. The Band Design Guidelines for Apple Watch document clearly states, “Bands must not integrate magnetic chargers.”

READERS LIKE YOU! Support TidBITS by becoming a member today!Check out the perks at <http://tidbits.com/member_benefits.html>Special thanks to Gary Devoe, Shoshanna Green, Fritz Mills, and Edward
Wood for their generous support!

Some users have reported that the Apple Watch’s digital crown has become “sticky.” If your digital crown isn’t operating smoothly, Apple recommends rinsing the Apple Watch under running water for 10 to 15 seconds, turning and pressing the digital crown to free it up. If you have a leather band, be sure to remove it first, and don’t use any cleaning products on the Apple Watch.

Apple has released a new support document about the heart rate sensors in the Apple Watch, confirming what many had suspected: that some tattoos can interfere with the watch’s light-based sensors. If this affects you, is a significant problem, and can’t be solved by moving the watch to your other wrist, Apple recommends connecting the Apple Watch to a Bluetooth-based chest strap monitor instead.

You knew this was coming, didn’t you? With a week of experience under his wristband, Adam Engst joined Tech Night Owl host Gene Steinberg to talk about what works well and what doesn’t, with a focus on fitness. Put simply, Garmin and Fitbit don’t have much to worry about yet.

Thanks in part to the iPhone, distracted driving has become a 21st century epidemic. Will the Apple Watch change things for better or worse? Traumatized former commuter Josh Centers took it for a spin to find out.

To better understand the appeal of Apple’s new 12-inch MacBook, Julio Ojeda-Zapata looks to his parents. They’re far removed from debates about the laptop’s single USB-C port, and just want a mobile computer that is simple, attractive, and easy to carry. The 12-inch MacBook is their dream machine. Might it be yours as well?

Bushel is a simple tool that allows you to manage Apple devices.
Use device inventory, app distribution, security settings, and
more on many devices at once, using an intuitive Web portal.
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